The Senate Commerce Committee resumes its mark-up of the telecom reform bill sponsored by committee Chairman Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) amid growing doubts that Congress can even pass a bill before the end of the legislative session. Like a traffic cop at a congested intersection, Stevens has been intensely busy directing the flow of hundreds of amendments, pushing some through, ensuring that others die and negotiating all the way on the make-or-break issue of network neutrality.
Still, all this work may be for naught according to this item by Reuter’s Jerome Pelofsky. Stevens said yesterday that he doesn’t have enough votes to trigger a vote by the full Senate on the bill even when it’s reported out of committee.
Stevens needs the votes of three-fifths of the Senate (or 60 votes) to limit debate on the bill on the Senate floor under a procedure known as cloture. Following cloture, no more than 30 hours of debate on a bill can occur. Without cloture, debates can go on forever in a time-honored bill-killing move known as filibuster.
With so little time left to pass a bill this Congress, all it takes is one opponent to filibuster the bill to death. (The late Senator Strom Thurmond holds the record for the longest filibuster in the Senate — 24 hours 18 minutes.)
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:18 AM|Comments(0)
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